


pairs, always pairs

by noellesthings



Category: White Collar (TV 2009)
Genre: F/M, alternative universe, basically Sara and Neal travel the world stealing stuff, criminal!Sara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:26:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27737611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noellesthings/pseuds/noellesthings
Summary: Together, they are unstoppable.
Relationships: Neal Caffrey/Sara Ellis
Comments: 6
Kudos: 21





	pairs, always pairs

**Author's Note:**

> i’ve been trying to get out of my writing funk and random bits of this has been in the works for some time so I thought I’d just post it. Sara/Neal really clicks, and I’ve grown too obsessed with the idea of criminal!Sara.

**I.**

Sally Brighton, she signs.

Sally Oakston.

Lila Clems.

Sara Ellis.

**II.**

They meet on a train.

She’s a computer geek in the silicon slopes of California, hidden behind a one-size-fits-all hoodie and a pair of grey sweats; he’s a well-dressed businessman, long legs crossed and not a wrinkle in his suit. He’s charming, charismatic, a liar and a thief, Sara surreptitiously glances at him in the reflection of her window pane, golden rolling hills slipping by like grains of sand. 

By the end of the trip she’ll have hacked into the software company twice, and set up an alias for her offshore account. She’ll learn the software company’s work isn’t entirely clean, three people were recently fired from their security team, and that his name is Neal.

**III.**

It’s two months later when Sara reluctantly admits she likes working with Neal.

It’s convenient: the absentee husband she’s mentioned so frequently on covers and trips becomes a real one, Neal fits the role with charm and grace and the ring on his finger fits like glass. It’s affordable: Neal stays in his own hotel room and books his own flights, and Sara is never forced to deviate from plans, Neal neatly fits alongside them. The Rules in her head are simple. Neal follows them without expressing them out loud: one heist per week, never in the same city, never leave the city at the same time, and never, ever tell the cops.

Together, they plunder and grin and charm and their way into five-star hotels and pricey restaurants, designer clothesline and exclusive museums. Together, they steal a figure three times higher than Sara has ever done before. Together, they are unstoppable.

**IV.**

They get made for the first time in Washington.

Packing is a scramble of limbs and a too high, too tall kind of adrenaline, throwing clothes and brushes and complimentary bottles of shampoo into bags - anything and everything that’s got their DNA.

It’s bad. Neal stays Neal - calm and collected and nothing out of place except for fast moving, fast thinking hands - but for Sara, it’s bad.

The curtains flare red and blue and the whole fucking time her hands are _shaking_ and she can’t stop _looking_ at Neal: packing, zipping zippers and wiping counters with that ever-present grace; Neal notices and doesn’t comment, which makes her feel even worse. (The thing is: Sara’s first priority is herself, always has been. But when push comes to shove all of a sudden she’s staring not at the door but at Neal, staring with her heart racing in her chest and dammit he’s staring right back.)

They’re out the back door in three minutes, on the next train out in ten. Still, it’s close: Neal doesn’t flirt with the conductor, gets them the second cheapest seats a meter from the door and talks quietly to Mozzie on the phone as they pull away.

The whistle is an erratic pinch to her eardrums. Sara leans her forehead against the glass with Neal beside her and breathes, and by now the FBI is searching through an empty hotel room with nothing but erratic stains of paint. 

**V.**

They’re teachers at a conference in Monaco, doctors in Madrid, restaurant owners in Cabo, wannabe stars in Los Angeles - pairs, pairs, always pairs, always one hand wrapped around the other, fingers entangled. Sometimes, and only sometimes, Sara doesn’t fake the stars in her eyes.

**VI.**

Washington gets them noticed and the FBI is printing double warrants for their arrest, so they leave the country. Sara gets sick in Madrid, Neal in Vatican, and in Cuba Neal gets shot by a too-eager, too-zealous bounty hunter and it takes three hours for Sara to drag his shaking, sweating body out of the hotel and into a getaway boat. She remembers the name, the gun, and the face; the bounty hunter gets his ass carted back to the United States with assault for an officer, though no one remembers who and the details get pushed out of the frame. Sara gets hit in Germany: concussion from a car crash, Neal incorporates the driver into their plan, steals his wife, job, and cleans house, with the man none the wiser.

When the states are safe again, but not too safe, they travel back, a Degas, Picasso, three Da Vinci’s and a boatload of treasure tucked under priceless faces and wide, hungry eyes.

**VII.**

In New York, a woman named Kate tried to worm her way into Neal’s heart. Neal lets her, kisses her, sleeps with her in a way she totally buys and Sara would pity her, pity her if she didn’t wrap her arms around Neal’s waist like that. In the end, he steals Kate’s money and the two of them make out in the getaway car, laughing, elated and thrilled.

**VIII.**

Sally Brighton, she signs.

Sally Oakston.

Lila Clems.

Sara Ellis.

Sara Caffrey.

**Author's Note:**

> Join me on [tumblr ](https://noellesthings.tumblr.com/) my friends.


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